


Just My Luck

by DarkFairytale



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Blood and Injury, Buck is not a firefighter, Canon typical injuries, Car Accidents, Earthquakes, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, He's just accident prone, Humor, Implied/Referenced Sexual Harassment, M/M, POV Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV), POV Evan "Buck" Buckley, POV Henrietta "Hen" Wilson, Soft Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-23
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-13 00:46:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,356
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29643213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkFairytale/pseuds/DarkFairytale
Summary: AU: Buck is still drifting through different jobs, trying to find his place in the world. His unlucky habit of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and being prone to injury, makes him a regular acquaintance of the 118.
Relationships: Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV)
Comments: 94
Kudos: 542





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm back with another Buddie fic. Am I surprised? No.  
> Not beta'd, so any glaring errors etc. please let me know!
> 
> Also, just FYI, I am totally mixing up the canon timeline here to suit my own story purposes. Needs must.

It’s almost typical that an earthquake hits Los Angeles so soon after Eddie starts his new job as a firefighter with the 118. An earthquake of 7.1 magnitude, no less. And Eddie thought single-handedly removing a grenade from a guy’s leg had been high stakes. The army was getting some competition already.

He’s currently on the 11th floor of the Hollywood Palms Hotel, which is ironically leaning a little like a palm tree after it partially collapsed and the higher levels became detached. From the street they had seen a man pressed up against the glass of a window, unable to move because of the angle that the hotel was now leaning. Eddie had volunteered to go up to try to rescue him.

The angle of the floors are precariously steep up here, and Eddie and the firefighter he’s been paired with – a firefighter called Lena Bosko, recently transferred to the 118 from the 136 – are climbing down the corridor half on the carpeted floor and half on the wall.

“Hello?” Eddie calls out, “Hello! LAFD!”

He hears two separate male voices call “In here!” and “We’re in here!”

He and Lena work together to cut the door lock and secure themselves, before breaking the door open.

Inside they find not only the older man in a bath robe dangerously trapped against the window, but also a young man in the uniform of the hotel staff, who is pressed against one of the room's large gold pillars. Eddie recalls Captain Chief Williams reporting to Bobby that all but twelve of the sixty-eight hotel staff had been accounted for. Eddie and Lena just found another.

“Thank god,” the younger man in the hotel uniform says. He sounds weirdly unpanicked for someone at risk of plummeting eleven stories down.

Eddie tells him to sit tight and that he’ll come and get him.

“Ok,” the younger man says.

“No offense,” the bath robed man pressed to the window shouts back at them, “But how is _he_ the priority here?”

Eddie is surprised when any fear on the younger man’s face gives way for indignation, “Did you just say ‘no offence’?!” he demands of the bath robed man, “Everything about you is offensive!”

“Is that really how you should be speaking to paying guests?” Lena teases, as she and Eddie edge further into the room.

“Absolutely!” the younger man protests, “When said paying guest asks a member of staff to his room and orders them to _shower_ with him! I have been sexually harassed! Seriously man,” he shouts at the bath robed man again, “Have you not watched the news at all over the past year?!” The young man precedes to list an impressive selection of facts about sexual harassment figures and news stories from the past year.

It gives Lena enough time to start lowering Eddie via rope further down into the room towards the man on the window.

“Seriously though,” Eddie says in support of the hotel worker, “He’s right, catch up with the times.”

“Alright fine, so I’m a dinosaur!” the bath robed man declares, “A forgotten relic of a forgotten age! A product of my time! For god’s sake just get me the hell out of here!”

“None of that is an excuse for your behaviour!” the hotel worker hollers back.

While Eddie tries to move some furniture to get to the bath robed man, Lena calls to the hotel worker that she is throwing him a rope and that he needs to secure himself.

Again, the young man sounds less afraid than determined when he says ‘ok’, and calls that he’s ready for Lena to throw the rope.

The aftershocks of the earthquake hit not long after that. The aftershocks cause furniture to shift into the bath robed man and the glass that had started to web beneath him gives way before Eddie can reach him. He falls to his death. Eddie doesn’t have the time to internally criticise himself on not doing enough, not acting quickly enough, because the tremors send the young man sliding down the room. He’s managed to secure himself with the rope Lena threw down to him, but Eddie still catches him before he can topple all the way out of the broken window and end up dangling on the line. Eddie and the hotel worker teeter at the edge of the window, gripping onto each other.

He is a little taken aback when the hotel worker doesn’t scream, doesn’t panic, just sends him a sheepish, terrified grin and says “Well that was close.”

Eddie doesn't have time to try to start figuring this guy out though, as Lena starts to pull them back up the room and eventually, they step out into the unnaturally angled corridor.

“Thanks guys,” the hotel worker breathes in relief.

“Don’t thank us just yet,” Lena warns light-heartedly, “We have to get down first.”

“I have every faith,” the hotel worker says, “I’m Buck, by the way. What are your names?”

“I’m Eddie,” Eddie replies, “This is Lena.”

“Nice to meet you both, and thanks for coming to rescue me."

Neither Eddie nor Lena tell Buck that they had actually climbed all this way up to try and rescue the man that had been sexually harassing Buck.

"And I'm sorry about...about Mr Harlow," Buck says, and he genuinely looks upset that the man didn't make it. "There was nothing more you both could have done," he adds, reassuring _them,_ which... Eddie doesn't think he's ever rescued someone quite like this before. 

They make their way towards the stairs, Lena in the lead, and Eddie following Buck to make sure he’s ok. Eddie isn’t surprised Buck is pretty adept at manoeuvring the obstacle of the lopsided corridor; Buck’s hotel staff uniform is tight enough that Eddie can see Buck is pretty fit – _physically_ , obviously, not _attractively_ , well no, actually, he’s fit in that sense too but… -

“You think he’ll still be on the sidewalk when we get down there?” Buck's voice is haunted, and he’s looking back at Eddie like he’s just realised that that might be a possibility. Eddie's seen it plenty of times before; Buck's experiencing survivor's guilt for something that wasn't his fault. 

“No,” Eddie tells him firmly, “And we’re not going to be going out that side anyway.”

Buck doesn’t look particularly comforted regardless.

They potentially aren’t going to be going out of the side Eddie suggests either, when they reach the stairs and realise they can’t take them. It leaves the elevator shaft as their only option. Buck doesn’t even so much as complain. He even helps them, when they hear a voice calling for help and find a man with a spinal injury. Eddie and Lena fashion him a backboard out of an ironing board Buck finds in one of the rooms.

As Lena sets up the ropes to lower the man on the makeshift backboard down the elevator shaft, Eddie takes a moment to check his phone. They are in a dangerous situation. He knows that. He knows there’s a high chance more aftershocks will come, or that the hotel might give up and collapse before they can make it out, or that the elevator could come hurtling down and take them all out. All he wants is to be able to talk to Christopher. He wants to make sure that Christopher is safe. He hasn’t heard from him since he left him at school that morning, and he just prays that the school has decent earthquake protocols and that Christopher is fine.

He finds that there’s still no service. His texts still wouldn’t get through even if he tried.

“Who are you trying to get a hold of?” Buck asks him, sitting down next to him for a brief moment of respite before the abseil down.

“My son,” Eddie says, “I’m trying to reach my son.”

“You got a kid?” Buck asks with enthusiastic interest, like they are two friends sharing a drink in a bar and not eleven stories up in a collapsing hotel. 

“Yeah. Christopher.” Eddie turns the phone around to show Buck his phone's lockscreen picture, “He’s seven.”

Buck’s face lights up at the sight of Christopher, “And super adorable! I love kids. I worked on a ranch for a bit that ran horse riding lessons, you know? And I was a lifeguard for a while and taught surfing lessons. So yeah, love kids.”

“I love this one,” Eddie says, “I’m all he’s got.” He doesn’t know why he adds “His mother’s not in the picture.” But he does.

Buck just nods sympathetically, “He’s at school?”

“Yeah.”

“Hey, I’m sure he’s fine,” Buck says, squeezing Eddie’s shoulder; again comforting _him_ when Eddie’s the one doing the rescuing, “You know, after Northridge, FEMA spent $200 million retrofitting every school in the LAUSD; ceiling tiles, lighting fixtures…Eddie, your kid is in the safest place he can be.”

Eddie sends Buck a small smile. After all the action, this is the first time he has looked at Buck's face properly. He takes in Buck's blond styled hair, his dazzling boyish smile, and his eyes, that when lit in the light of day rather than the dimness of a collapsing hotel, are probably a bright shade of blue. He’s handsome, Eddie can’t deny that.

And, it turns out, that Buck is a bit of an action man too.

Lena is already moving herself and the backboard down the elevator shaft by the time Eddie gets Buck hooked up and ready for them both to descend after Lena.

“I’ve done some abseiling,” Buck says, “So you don’t have to worry about me so much, just make sure he gets down ok.” He gestures down the elevator shaft to the man with the spinal injury.

Eddie smiles and nods. And while Buck is right, he _is_ good with the lines, Eddie still keeps an eye on him regardless, keeping pace with him as they lower themselves down.

They make it out. Eddie and Lena go to help Bobby and Chim rescue Hen.

By the time Eddie makes it back outside he finds that Buck is still there, perched in the back of an ambulance.

“How are you doing, Buck?” Eddie asks.

“I’m fine,” Buck says, loudly, like he’s trying to convince the paramedic of that fact, “Thanks to you. Have you heard from your kid’s school?” Buck asks.

Eddie shakes his head, “Still no signal.”

“He’ll be fine,” Buck tells him.

“Because of the $200 million retrofitting, right?” Eddie quotes.

Buck seems to light up at Eddie remembering what Buck had told him about the earthquake retrofittings in schools. “Exactly!” Buck says.

He sends Eddie a particularly lovely smile, and Eddie can’t help but grin back.

He’s about to ask Buck more about how he’s doing - because Eddie has a feeling Buck is burying things under a breezy smile, because Eddie knows internalising _very_ well, he’s a master at it - but bizarrely, Chim beats him in speaking to Buck.

“Buck?” Chim says, coming to stand beside Eddie, taking in Buck's appearance, “You work in this hotel now?”

“Well, I did,” Buck grimaces, looking at the wreckage of the hotel, “Maybe not anymore.”

Chim pulls an apologetic face, “Where were you?”

Buck points upwards, “Eleventh floor. The guy against the window? I was in the same room, getting sexually harassed. Eddie and Lena rescued me. Not from the sexual harassment, the earthquake saved me from _that_ , but…well, not _saved_ , the earthquake wasn’t a good thing of course but…” He trails off, looking embarrassed, and then Eddie watches as Bobby comes into view and Buck and Bobby clock each other, and then Buck’s expression turns almost _guilty,_ “Captain Nash,” Buck says meekly.

“Buck,” Bobby sighs, “Why am I not surprised?”

Eddie is confused. So confused that he excuses himself with an apologetic smile at Buck and follows Chim and Bobby as they head towards where Hen is being checked over. They clearly know Buck, and with Buck’s physique and cool head in a crazy situation, Eddie wonders if Buck might have worked for another firehouse at some point.

“You guys know Buck?” he asks.

“Of course we know Buck,” Chim says, “Possibly the unluckiest guy in LA, and that’s coming from the guy who got a rebar through the head.”

It takes Eddie aback, “Unlucky how?”

“The only reason we know Buck is because we’ve responded to enough incidents that he’s either been involved in or witnessed.” Bobby says, “We first met him when he was working as a bartender…”

“And then as a bouncer,” Chim chips in.

“So, we responded to enough bar brawls and incidents to start to recognise his face,” Bobby finishes, “To the kid’s credit, he de-escalated a number of situations before we arrived, and helped people who had been injured. But quite often _he_ was also injured in the process.”

“Because Buck doesn’t _just_ have a bad case of ‘wrong place wrong time’,” Chim explains, “He also seems to get injured _a lot_. There was the time he choked on bread during a date and we were the closest response unit…”

“He had a crush injury after a car pile-up,” Bobby continues with a frown, “That was a tough one.”

“Yeah,” Chim agrees, “It was. Bystanders ended up helping us physically lift the vehicle off him.”

“He got pinned under a car?” Eddie says, glancing back at the ambulance Buck was still sitting in. Jesus! Choking, getting crushed under a car, and then getting caught up in the destruction of an earthquake? Poor Buck really _did_ have some bad luck.

“It was a truck,” Bobby corrects.

Shit. _Really_ bad luck.

“So, it’s a good job you and Lena got acquainted with him really,” Chim pats Eddie’s shoulder as he passes him to carry on towards Hen, “This won’t be the last you’ll see of Buck, I guarantee it.”

Eddie raises an eyebrow at Bobby, but the Captain just shrugs with a defeated air that has a strange amount of fatherly concern for someone who is not much more than an acquaintance to him, “If first responders had ‘regulars’, Buck would be one," Bobby says, "This may well not be the last time we see him.”

Eddie glances back at the ambulance. He knows that with each emergency the 118 responds to, they should hope not to see the person they are responding to again after that. But Buck? Eddie cannot help but hope that maybe he might run into Buck again somewhere, sometime in the future. Preferably _not_ in another emergency though. And definitely not an earthquake. Eddie’s has had his fill of _those_ for a good long while. He imagines Buck has too.


	2. Chapter 2

They respond to a 9-1-1 call from the Los Angeles Bodybuilding Regionals at Muscle Beach, where one of the competitors has gotten locked in a double bicep pose. The bodybuilder has an extreme case of hyponatremia, or ‘charley horse’ – “he _is_ a charley horse,” Chim jokes – and Hen is not the least surprised when they immediately find out that the bodybuilder’s name is _actually_ Charlie. Hen’s job is ridiculous sometimes. 

They wheel Charlie towards the ambulance while Bobby berates Taylor Kelly and her cameraman for filming Charlie’s distress.

Eddie abruptly comes to stop, and Hen walks right into the back of him.

“Eddie!” she protests, “What the hell?” she turns to see what Eddie is looking at.

Surprise, surprise, Buck is walking towards them.

“Hi guys!” Buck says, “What are you doing…holy…is he stuck in a _double bicep pose?_ Wait…” Buck peers around Hen to look back towards Bobby, “Is that _Taylor Kelly_?”

“Buck,” Hen says, to get his attention back, “What are you doing here?”

Buck is shirtless, and the beach shorts he is wearing bears the logo of the events company that’s hosting the bodybuilding regionals.

“I’m working,” Buck says.

“You’re bodybuilding?” Eddie asks, sounding totally casual and conversational when he says it, like the sight of Buck's toned torso and huge biceps hadn’t literally stopped Eddie in his _tracks._ Buck clearly hadn’t noticed, but Hen did, and she will _not_ forget. This is at least two weeks’ worth of good-natured ribbing material.

“Who…who me?!” Buck stumbles over his words, sounding both flattered and self-deprecating as he gestures at himself, “I'm nowhere near hench enough for that!” he turns and points towards a temporary bar that has been set up for the spectators, “I’m working at the bar. Been picking up a few temporary jobs until I find something permanent. I just got on my break and saw the commotion. Is he ok?”

“He will be,” Chim says, “So the hotel didn’t work out, then?”

Buck shrugs good naturedly, and even though Eddie’s eyes are shaded by sunglasses, Hen can practically _sense_ how his eyes follow the movement of Buck’s shoulders. “They are still planning the rebuild and it’s going to take a while, so I thought I’d move on and find something new.” Buck glances behind Hen, “Captain Nash.”

“Buck,” Bobby responds, finally joining them after scolding Taylor Kelly.

“Sorry, I’ll let you guys get on with your job. Get well soon, man!” Buck calls to Charlie. He gives them all a cheery wave and heads off towards the beach, calling a girl’s name and jogging to catch up with her.

“That guy has had more jobs than he has had accidents,” Chim comments as he and Hen climb into the back of the ambulance.

“Surely that’s a good thing?” Hen says.

“Not when you consider how many accidents he has actually _had_.”

“Fair point.”

The day somehow gets crazier from there. They all share round some brownies before the next call, and the next thing Hen knows, she, Eddie and Lena are as high as kites at a kids beauty pageant. Athena does not appreciate Hen telling her that she smells of love and that her head is beating like her heart as much as Hen hopes she would.

Eddie cries. Hen tries to store that away for additional ribbing ammunition but the room is currently glittering like a diamond and everyone is beautiful, so she may well forget.

Later, Chim tells them that Athena told him the police just throw food parcels from the public right in the trash.

“But we’re firefighters,” Lena says, “Everybody loves us.”

“That’s what _I_ said!” Chim agrees, pointing at her.

“Maybe we _should_ be more careful though,” Hen suggests. She would rather not be put back under Athena and Chim’s stares of exasperated disapproval again anytime soon, “Maybe we should test food that comes in, or only accept it from people we absolutely trust?”

“You’re only saying that because you don’t want us to stop enjoying Buck’s batches.” Chim knows her too damn well.

“Buck’s _what_ now?” Eddie asks. Surprise, surprise.

“Whenever we save Buck he brings us the most amazing cookies and brownies and cake,” Chim says, “Didn’t you know? Those chocolate chip cookies we all had two days after the earthquake? Remember those?”

From the looks of surprise on Eddie and Lena’s faces, they absolutely did remember the cookies. Because of course they did. They hadn’t had anything half as good as those cookies gifted to the firehouse since.

“They were from Buck?” Eddie asks.

“He worked in a bakery at some point,” Chim said.

“How is this guy only in his twenties?” Lena says, “How many lives has he _lived_?!”

“He definitely has at least nine of them,” Chim says, and everyone groans at the joke, “What?”

“Yeah, well,” Hen says, “Let’s hope he’s not going to be using up any more of those nine lives anytime soon. No matter how good his baking is.”

***

Buck pulls his jeep into the gas station and cuts the engine. He sighs. It’s been a hell of a few weeks. He’s been working with an events company for a few months now, taking almost every type of job they offer him and the weeks leading up to Halloween have been crazy. He’s spent several days dressed up as various characters for kids Halloween events. Halloween was actually yesterday, but there was one last event scheduled, so he’s currently got a Captain America costume on under his real clothes.

It’s a living, until he can find something regular and permanent that he wants to do. And he can’t say it hasn’t been wildly varied, so he isn’t complaining. He likes doing a job that isn’t the same thing day in day out.

He’s about to head into the gas station to buy a snack, when he sees a lady tottering towards her car with a bag of chips in her hand. She has a pretty nasty looking bump on her forehead, but honestly? He’s seen so many fake grisly injuries in the last week, he almost doesn’t give her a second look. He actually grins when he sees how she’s gone all-out for Halloween with the body draped over the hood of her car; its head looking like it’s going through the windshield. It’s effective.

But then he sees the body’s foot move.

 _Holy shit._ That’s a _real person_! And the woman is just sitting in the driver’s seat and…driving away? With someone smashed through her windshield? What the hell?! Then he remembers the bump on her forehead, and realises that the wound probably isn’t fake, either.

“Oh whoa! Hey, hey, hey! Hey! Lady, lady!” he tries to chase after her car, but she doesn’t stop. “Damn it!” Buck swears and runs back to his jeep.

As he pursues her car, he calls 9-1-1 on his hands-free.

“9-1-1, what’s your emergency?”

“My name is Evan Buckley,” he says, calm, because god knows he’s made enough of these calls in his lifetime. He is kind of glad it’s not Maddie on the other end of the line at the dispatch centre though, because god knows she’s heard his voice enough times on these calls, too. “I’m going south down Vermont following a gold, 4-door Sedan. There is a man embedded in the windshield.”

“Sorry, did you say in the windshield? We had a report about that yesterday. Is that _real_?”

“Uh, yeah, it’s definitely real,” Buck says. Shit. Clearly someone called it in yesterday and it was dismissed as a Halloween prop, just as Buck almost did. That man has been in there for a _day_?! “And I think he’s alive.” Buck knows that there is something wrong with the female driver – her head injury – and Buck’s worried she might cause an accident. He says “I’m gonna approach the vehicle right now.”

The dispatcher tries to tell him not to, but Buck knows he has to get this lady off the road. He pulls his jeep up alongside hers and tries to call to her through his open window “Ma’am! Ma’am! Pull over your car!” She doesn’t listen – it’s like she doesn’t even see him – so he speeds up, and swings the jeep around to block her. He’s grateful that she stops.

He jumps out the jeep only for the woman to get out her car and tell him “You are a horrible driver! You are right in my way!”

Buck holds up his hands in earnest defence, “Ma’am, please. Have you hurt yourself recently?” the bump and cut on her head look pretty bad, and he’s pretty sure her pupils aren’t doing what they should be in the glare of the headlights.

“What? What do you mean?” the woman asks.

Buck is about to answer, when he hears the man embedded in the windshield groan.

“Uh, you just stay right here, ok?” Buck begs the lady, before ducking into the front seat to check on the man. Buck lifts his arm to comfort him, but he knocks the glass of the windshield. _Typical_ , Buck thinks, as the webbed glass partially shatters down on him. “Sir?” Buck says, “Sir? Can you hear me? Help is on its way.”

Help comes in the form of the 118. Because of course it does. Buck would never be so lucky. Don’t get him wrong; he likes the 118, of course he does. Captain Nash, Hen, Chimney (Buck still doesn’t know why they call him that) and their newest recruits Eddie and Lena. They are all super nice and amazing at their jobs. But Buck feels like he’s getting a reputation at this point. A reputation for being a clumsy idiot and a source of great exasperation.

It’s like every single time he goes somewhere, he or someone else gets into trouble, and it _always_ seems to be the 118 that responds to the 9-1-1 call. Even when he’s not anywhere near their station, they always seem to coincidentally be the closest response unit to wherever he is.

Some would call it fate. Some would call it bad luck. Buck is the personification of bad fucking luck.

Chim and Hen greet him like he used to greet regulars at the bars he’s worked at, and the restaurants, and the hotel, and the bakery, and the time he ran aqua aerobics sessions at a holiday resort in Florida. He actually feels sheepish now every time Captain Nash’s gaze lands on him and doesn’t seem the least bit surprised – but sometimes looks a little worried – to see Buck standing there at the scene of an emergency.

“Captain Nash,” Buck greets, like always does.

“Buck,” Captain Nash responds, like he always does. Because it’s almost _routine_ now. For god’s _sake_!

Now, Buck knows, the routine will undoubtedly go one of two ways: the ‘kind of proud’ direction or the ‘kind of exasperated and concerned at how unlucky you are’ direction. Buck knows which one he prefers.

“Heard you called this one in,” Captain Nash says, and _yes!_ The ‘kind of proud’ direction! “And that you managed to pull the driver over. Well done, Buck.”

“Thanks,” Buck can’t help but be pleased.

Buck waits while the 118 work to free the man from the windshield. He wants to make sure the man is ok before he will inevitably have to give a statement to the police. He’s given enough of those too so he knows the drill. Another ambulance has arrived at the scene and Hen and Chim are with the other paramedics, filling them in so that they can take over. Buck guesses the 118 must be at the end of their shift.

Buck can’t help but look for Eddie. Buck likes Eddie. How can he not when Eddie was one of the firefighters that saved his life during the earthquake? Eddie had been calm, and cool under the stress of the disaster, and had kept Buck reassured too. Buck had also seen another side to Eddie, when Eddie had talked about his son. So yeah, he likes Eddie. He’s super nice, and ridiculously hot. So much so that Buck probably made a right fool of himself when he’d seen the 118 again at Muscle Beach, tripping over his words when Eddie had asked him if Buck was there as a bodybuilder. Buck had majorly embarrassed himself by pointing out that he wasn’t anywhere near as muscled as the competing bodybuilders. Ugh. Way to mistake Eddie’s conversational question for a compliment. Buck is such a disaster sometimes. ‘A bi disaster’ as Maddie likes to teasingly call him. 

Buck is already embarrassing himself _again_ , because Eddie looks over and catches Buck staring at him like some kind of creeper. But to his surprise, Eddie smiles warmly at him, changing direction to stroll over to him, so maybe Buck hasn’t completely weirded Eddie out. Yet. The ‘yet’ is inevitable.

Eddie’s gaze drops and he frowns, gesturing at Buck, “Want me to check you out?”

Buck’s confused, before he looks where Eddie’s looking, and sees that his sleeve is soaked in blood. “Oh, nah, it’s not mine,” Buck says, figuring it must have come from the injured man when Buck was reassuring him, “I have another shirt in my…” but then he pulls up the sleeve of his zip-up sweater, and he finds that the sleeve underneath is also soaked with blood, and that there’s a long cut through the material and Buck’s forearm. He must have cut his arm when the glass of the windshield shattered. “Maybe,” Buck corrects, stomach turning.

Eddie takes his hand, face pinched with concerned concentration, as he lifts it up and Buck sees more clearly in the light how the dark blue of the sleeve is darkened with blood. He stares at the amount of bright red on his hand. There’s a lot.

“You should know,” Buck says faintly, looking at Eddie, a little afraid all of a sudden, “I’m…I’m on blood thinners.”

Eddie’s face hardens into the face Buck saw a lot of during the earthquake – his serious ‘firefighter’ face – and he grasps Buck’s upper arm more firmly. “Come on, let’s get you in an ambulance. I’ll check it out.”

“Are you…a medic too?” Buck asks dumbly as Eddie guides him towards the 118’s ambulance.

“I was a medic in the army,” Eddie tells him, like he’s reassuring him that he’s capable, but honestly, Buck would have trusted Eddie either way.

“Eddie?” Hen asks as Buck and Eddie approach the open doors of the ambulance, “What’s up?”

“Buck’s cut his arm,” Eddie tells her, “He’s on blood thinners.”

“Of _course_ he is,” Hen teases warmly, and Buck rolls his eyes at her, because while he and Captain Nash have a routine by now, he and Hen have one too, “Why exactly are you on blood thinners, Buck?”

“After the erm…my leg got crushed that time with the…”

“Yeah, we remember,” Chim says.

Buck grimaces. He is still so grateful for how much the 118 had done that night to rescue him, but he knows how awful that whole pile-up call must have been for the first responders. He shouldn’t have assumed that they’d have so easily forgotten.

“Well, they had to put some rods and screws in my leg. But then because I may have pushed too hard to get back on my feet, I suffered from a pulmonary embolism. It was super embarrassing, I actually collapsed at a party to celebrate my recovery.” He doubts they will be surprised such a thing happened to him. He doesn’t mention the fact he'd coughed up blood as well. Maddie had been beside herself. “They put me on blood thinners to stop any more blood clots and are monitoring me. They think the screws in my leg might actually be the problem, but they are also helping fix my leg so…” he shrugs, “Blood thinners for now. And hopefully it will all go away once they take the screws out.”

He stops, embarrassed, because they are all staring at him. He doesn’t blame them. He genuinely sounds like a walking disaster.

“Buck,” Eddie says, and Buck waits for some kind of ‘I’m sorry your life is a mess’, but all Eddie says is, “I need to take a closer look at your arm. Can you take off your sweater? This undersleeve is pretty tight, I might have to cut it…”

Buck doesn’t remember why he should have said no to the sweater coming off until it is and they are all staring at him. “What?” he asks, before glancing down at the star on his chest. Oh yeah, he’s dressed as Captain America. “Please don’t,” he groans at them, “Please don’t say anything.”

“Well, I mean, we have to at least know _why_?” Chim says, like he’s trying hard to bite back a laugh.

“Work,” Buck grumbled, “I’ve been working Halloween events all week.” He eyes Hen and Chim, expecting them to burst into laughter, and although it looks like they want to, they don’t.

Eddie just takes him in and says, “It suits you,” and starts cutting the cuff of the skin-tight sleeve so that he can inspect Buck’s injury.

Buck is glad Eddie’s looking away so he doesn’t see Buck’s face flushing, because _honestly_ , Buck, Eddie's only trying to make you feel better because you're _humiliated_. Buck also tries to ignore whatever look is passing between Hen and Chim.

“Man,” Buck complains when he realises “The events company is probably going to take the cost of the costume out of my wages.”

“Sorry,” Eddie murmurs, concentrating on folding back the sliced sleeve. Buck likes Eddie’s hands. He has gentle fingers and…and don’t get side-tracked, Buck.

“Oh, it's not your fault! It was already ruined,” Buck reasons cheerfully, “My blood’s all over it.”

“I despair,” Chim announces, before saying “Hey Cap.”

“Oh, don’t start with the ‘Cap’ stuff,” Buck complains, looking at him, before realising that Chim wasn't joking about the Captain America costume, he was addressing Captain Nash, who has come up to the back of the ambulance.

Captain Nash’s eyebrow arches at the sight of Buck’s costume and Chim sniggers, the traitor.

“What’s happened?” Captain Nash asks, eyeing where Eddie is already cleaning Buck’s forearm of blood to inspect the damage.

“He cut himself on the windshield glass,” Eddie reports, “Sorry, Buck,” he adds softly, as Buck winces at the sting of whatever Eddie’s cleaning the blood away with. Eddie then carries on “The cuts look pretty shallow, luckily, so they won’t take much to seal. But he’s on blood thinners,” he glances at Captain Nash, “I would prefer he gets checked out at the hospital.”

“That really isn’t necessary…” Buck starts.

“It absolutely is necessary,” Captain Nash corrects, “We’ll take you on our way back to the 118.”

“But my statement…” Buck tries.

“The police can take your statement at the hospital.”

“My car…”

“The police will sort that too,” Captain Nash says, brooking no argument, “Hen, Chim, if you wouldn’t mind telling Lena to drive the fire truck back, and if you could drive the ambulance. Eddie and I are going to sit back here with Buck.”

“Why do I feel like I’m in for a lecture?” Buck says, as the doors slam shut behind Hen and Chim as they abandon him and his unfortunate lack of verbal filter with the hot ex-army medic and the resigned-to-the-fact-Buck’s-an-idiot fire captain.

Captain Nash sighs, “I’m not going to lecture you, Buck.”

“Captain Nash…”

“Please, call me Bobby,” Captain Nash says, “I think we know each other well enough for that by now.”

“Bobby,” Buck corrects sheepishly, already mentally reminding himself he will need to change his routine greeting the next time he inevitably sees Bobby Nash and the 118.

“I was talking to the police and some of the other paramedics,” Bobby says, as the ambulance starts up, “Apparently the driver hit the man two days ago, not yesterday. She hit her head pretty hard during the impact and they think she probably has a brain bleed, which would explain why she was so confused. She should recover. The man in the windshield will have to have surgery, but they think he has a fair chance too.”

Buck is so relieved that both the man and woman are hopefully going to be ok, and he’s about to say so, when Bobby adds “And it’s because you jumped in there and saved them. It probably didn’t even occur to you to worry about yourself.”

“Yeah, I know, I know,” Buck sighed, “I didn’t think, just rushed in like I always do…”

“Like I said, this isn’t a lecture, Buck. You saved two lives today,” Bobby interrupts, “You did the right thing.” He regards Buck with some curiosity, “Have you ever considered training as a firefighter?”

It takes Buck by surprise. Pleasant surprise, because Bobby is complimenting him. “Actually…” he starts awkwardly, “Actually, I did start firefighter training last year.”

Eddie, who has been working quietly on cleaning and wrapping his arm the whole time, glances up at him with interest at the same time Bobby asks “What happened?” though he looks like he has already guessed; he was there when Buck’s leg was crushed.

“The pile-up,” Buck says, “My leg. I had to quit the training course. They said once I’ve recovered and been given a clean bill of health I can try again, but until then,” he shrugs, gestures to the Captain America costume, “I guess I’m trying on as many different costumes as I can until I find the one that fits.”

“Well,” Eddie comments, finishing off bandaging Buck’s arm, “We know two people who must be pretty relieved that Captain America turned up to save the day today.”

Buck sends him a grateful smile and Eddie grins back. Wow, his canines are pointy! Wow, his eyes really light up when he smiles! Wow it’s…it’s a great grin, as far as Buck’s concerned.

When they arrive at the hospital Eddie accompanies him in to the desk to fill the staff in on what he’s done for Buck’s arm already and why he needs a check-up. At one point Eddie turns to him and says, “I’m really sorry, I don’t know your full name?”

“It’s Evan,” Buck says, “Evan Buckley.”

Eddie looks like he’s weighing the name up in his mind for a second before he nods and turns to speak once more to the nurse behind the desk.

“What’s Eddie short for?” Buck asks him when Eddie leads Buck towards the seats where he’s been told to wait. He knows Eddie’s surname is Diaz, thanks to the surname printed on the back of his uniform, but he’s realised he doesn’t know what Eddie is short for. “Eduardo?”

“No,” Eddie says, but doesn’t offer the actual answer.

“Edmundo?” Buck guesses.

Eddie shrugs, smirks a little, and Buck _knows_ he’s got it right second time, “Eddie,” is all Eddie says, “Just Eddie.”

“Just Eddie it is,” Buck says.

“You going to be ok on your own?” Eddie asks, handing Buck back the sweater Buck hadn’t even realised Eddie has been holding.

“Sure thing, Just Eddie,” Buck jokes, which, _lame_ , Buckley, just _lame._

Eddie seems to take pity on him and just rolls his eyes good naturedly. “Will you be able to get home ok?” Eddie asks, “After the police take your statement, I’m sure they can give you a lift back to your car if you're cleared to drive?”

“I’ll be fine,” Buck dismisses with a smile, “I’ve done this a few times now, believe it or not.”

“I believe it,” Eddie says, but he doesn’t look particularly amused about it.

“Oh, Mr Buckley, it’s you again,” says a voice across the room.

Buck looks over and spots a nurse he's familiar with. “Oh hey, Marlene!” Buck calls to her, “How are Amy and Jack?”

“They’re good, thank you,” says Marlene, looking exasperatedly fond as she always does, “What have you done this time?”

“Just a cut, Marlene,” Buck smiles, “Nothing to worry about!”

Buck turns back to Eddie with the smile still on his face. Eddie’s eyebrows are raised. “Please tell me she doesn’t know you because of how much time you’ve spent here.”

“Uhh…” Buck starts.

And, because he has terrible luck, another of the several nurses Buck knows pretty well by now also picks that moment to walk past and say, “Hi Buck.”

“Hi Tom,” Buck says.

Eddie mutters something in Spanish, but because Buck spent some time bartending in Peru and other countries in Latin America, he understands him; “How can someone be so good when bad stuff happens to them so often?”

Buck is about to answer that it’s probably because Buck is too stubborn to let the bad stuff get him down, because if he _did_ , he would have given up a long time ago now, but he doesn’t get the chance, because Eddie checks his watch and says in English “I’m going to have to get back to the ambulance. Are you sure you…”

“Go, Eddie,” Buck tells him, “And thanks. Thanks for…” he lifts his arm and waves it around lamely and just _why._ Why is he doing that?!

“Take it easy Buck,” Eddie tells him, seriously.

“You too,” Buck answers back easily, “See you soon!”

Eddie, who was turning towards the exit, stops and throws him a look, “ _Really_ , Buck?”

“Oh yeah, right,” Buck shifts, “Yeah, hopefully not…not soon? It was nice to see you again, anyway, though.”

The corner of Eddie’s mouth ticks up into a smile, “Nice to see you again too, Buck.”

***

Two days after they had helped Buck, Eddie arrives at the station for his shift to find Lena, Hen and Chim scoffing down brownies.

“I thought we had sworn off brownies for life?” he asks.

“Not these ones,” Chim tells him with his mouth half-full, “These are Buck’s.”

“He dropped them by earlier,” Lena says, “To thank us for the other day.”

Eddie tries one.

Holy _shit_.

He has a second one.

***

It’s nearly Christmas, and Eddie has been torn and conflicted over Shannon’s reappearance in his life for weeks now. He still hasn’t even let Christopher know his mother is around and wants to reconnect with him, and he hates himself for keeping that from him. But he’s also terrified; he’s terrified of Shannon leaving again and Christopher being heartbroken all over again.

Christopher wants to go and meet Santa at one of the Christmas markets, so Eddie obliges. He wants, as always, to give Christopher the best Christmas he possibly can, regardless of whether or not Shannon is involved in it.

He’s just leading Christopher up to the line of kids waiting to meet Santa, from which point Christopher has assured him he can ‘take it from there’, when all of a sudden Eddie and Christopher’s way is blocked by an elf. A very tall elf.

“Buck?!” Eddie blurts out, half laugh and half surprise.

Buck should look absolutely _ridiculous_ in the red and green top, the jangly baubles, the green tights, and the red and green hat with the elf ears attached, but somehow he…doesn’t? He just looks cute, and Eddie doesn’t know what to do or say.

He doesn’t have to, in the end, because Buck isn’t talking to him, he’s already crouched down to speak to Christopher.

“Hi Christopher,” Buck says, and Eddie is amazed that Buck has remembered his son’s name, because Eddie is pretty sure he only mentioned Christopher’s name once, while they were at the top of the elevator shaft in the collapsing hotel during the earthquake. “My name’s Buck.” He taps his name tag. “I know your Dad.” He glances up at Eddie. “Well actually, your Dad has saved me twice while he has been at work.”

“He’s a hero,” Christopher tells Buck.

“He is,” Buck agrees easily, and Eddie can tell he means it, “A superhero.”

“Says you, Captain America,” Eddie teases, enjoying the way Buck’s face reddens at the reminder.

“Wait,” Christopher says, “Dad told me he met Captain America at work,” he frowns at Buck, “That was you? But you’re an elf?”

“Well actually,” Buck says, “I’m neither. I’m just a boring old human,” he pulls a face and Christopher laughs, “But, because all the real elves are super busy getting all the toys and presents ready for Christmas, me and some of my human friends,” he gestured to his fellow Christmas elves, “We’ve been given the special job of being elves for the day to help Santa meet some kids and hear what’s on their wish list.”

“That’s a cool job!” Christopher tells him.

“It is,” Buck says nodding, “Not as cool as your Dad’s, but it _is_ very important that Santa gets to hear what everyone wants for Christmas. Do you know what you want for Christmas?”

“Yeah!” Christopher says.

“Good,” Buck pulls a piece of paper out of his pocket and his eyes scan down it, “Ah, there you are, Christopher Diaz right there on the ‘nice list’! You’ve got no trouble here, kiddo.” 

“Thanks Buck,” Christopher smiles at him. 

Buck grins back and stands up. “I’m just going on a break,” Buck tells Eddie, “So I’ll leave you guys to it.”

“Actually,” Eddie cuts in, “Christopher wants to handle this himself. I offered to wait in line with him but he said this is 'private'. So, if you wanted to grab a coffee?”

“Oh,” Buck smiles, “Oh yeah, sure. Sounds good.”

Eddie and Buck get some coffees at a nearby stall and sit together on the edge of a fountain, keeping an eye on Christopher, who is still waiting in line. It’s nice to see Buck outside of any kind of emergency situation. Buck keeps waving back to kids who must have met him earlier in the day, and it is incredibly endearing. Buck seems to be amazing with kids; Eddie still hasn't quite gotten over how great Buck just was with Christopher. 

Eddie gets out his phone to get some photos and footage of Christopher waiting in line. “Christopher!” he calls, waving.

Christopher turns and gives him a big grin.

“You’ve gotta admire the kid,” Buck comments, “Wanting to do it on his own.”

Eddie laughs in proud agreement, “Yeah. He wants to try to do _everything_ on his own these days.”

“Have you got any idea what he’s going to wish for?” Buck asks, and when Eddie turns to look at him, Buck genuinely looks like an overgrown Christmas elf wanting to get in on the Santa gossip.

Eddie wants to smile at him, but the question makes him frown before he can. “I have an idea,” he says. Because Christopher has often wished for one thing.

“Oh?” Buck asks, looking like he’s concerned that he’s overstepped. “And what’s that, if you don't mind me asking?”

Eddie sighs and is totally surprised to find himself admitting “For his mother to come home.”

“Oh,” Buck says again, “You said…you said she’s not in the picture?”

“Yeah, well,” Eddie shifts, “That’s changed a bit, recently. I reached out to her because I needed her help getting Christopher into his new school. And we just kind of ended up…” he trailed off, clearing his throat awkwardly.

“ _Oh_ ,” Buck says, for a third time, as he catches on, “Well, these things happen. I mean, are you guys…married? Still…married?”

“Technically.”

“Then it’s not like you’re breaking any commandments is it?”

“Yeah,” Eddie agrees, but he’s not sure Buck’s easy acceptance and reassurance is what he's after. He sighs “But I _am_ sneaking around behind my kid’s back with his mother.”

“Christopher doesn’t know?”

Eddie sighs again, “I don’t know what he knows. Kids sense these things, right?” And then suddenly, and he doesn’t know how, or why, because Eddie rarely speaks about his problems to anybody _ever_ , the floodgates seem to have opened and he’s pouring out all his built-up guilt on Buck, “The other day I made her sneak out so he wouldn’t see her there. I’m…I’m trying to protect him. She…she ran out on him. On us. And I guess I’m afraid she might do it again. But that’s also unfair of me, because I ran out on both of them first. When Christopher was first diagnosed with CP I was in Afghanistan, right at the end of my tour. Instead of going back home I reenlisted. I told myself it was to pay the bills.”

“But you were running away too,” Buck summarises. If he’s weirded out by Eddie spilling his guts when they have only actually met three times before, Buck doesn’t show it. Eddie thinks back to the hospital the last time he saw Buck, and how Buck had known several of the nurses and even asked after their kids; maybe Buck is just one of those people that’s a good listener, and that people naturally feel they can talk to about this kind of stuff.

“Yeah. But I got to pretend like it was for a noble cause, serving my country,” Eddie says. Maybe, he wonders, it’s because Buck isn’t a colleague or family member that he feels he is able to talk to him. Maybe it’s because he’s starting to consider Buck a friend. He’s always happy to see him; so long as it’s not Buck that’s in need of medical assistance at an emergency, of course. “But when Shannon broke, nobody thought she was a hero. She just got called evil.”

“And now she wants back in his life?” Buck says.

“Yeah.”

“Well why don’t you let her? Seems like she’s already back in yours?”

“That’s…that’s what’s got me confused. Would I be doing it for Christopher? Or for me?”

Buck sighs and says “Sex complicates everything.”

Eddie flounders, because apparently just Buck saying the word ‘sex’ is enough to make Eddie lose his senses a bit. Eddie mourns the fact that Buck is straight – well, he has to be, right? Eddie had seen how Buck looked at Taylor Kelly and was heading off to spend time with a girl at Muscle Beach, and he had heard it mentioned that Buck’s ex-girlfriend had also been at the pile-up when Buck’s leg had gotten crushed; she’d walked away relatively unscathed – “Yeah,” Eddie just ends up agreeing, “Yeah it does.” He cringes when he realises he hasn’t even asked after Buck, “Anyway, enough about me,” Eddie says, embarrassed, “How are you doing? How’s the arm?”

“Huh?” Buck asks, like cutting his arm was such a minor thing he’s genuinely forgotten, “Oh right, yeah!” he beams at him, “Good as new!” he announces, lifting his arm and waving it around, even though Eddie can’t actually see his arm under the gaudy red and green sleeve. The baubles of his elf outfit are jangling as he moves. “I had a good nurse,” he winks.

Eddie feels his face heat.

Luckily, he’s saved by Buck looking past him and saying, “Oh, hey!”

Eddie turns and sees that Christopher has finished meeting Santa and is being guided down to meet them by another of Buck’s elf friends. He and Buck both stand up to go and greet Christopher.

“How’d it go, pal?” Eddie asks Christopher.

“It went great,” Christopher tells him.

“So, what’d you ask for?” Eddie teases, for the tenth time that day.

“Can’t tell!” Christopher protests, for the tenth time that day, “Santa said he’d work on it.”

Eddie grins “Ok kid,” he says. He thanks the other elf – her name tag says her name is Blair – and then turns back to Buck, “It was good to see you, Buck. Thanks for…well, for listening,” he says. He’s still embarrassed by how much he just spilled about himself, when he’s pretty sure the only things he knows about Buck are some of his past jobs and injuries. He only found out his real name the last time he saw him for god’s sake.

“Anytime,” Buck says, and he sounds like he actually means it. He leans in and says, just for Eddie’s ears, “You have an _adorable_ son.”

Eddie can’t help but smile, because he knows its true, and he’s always proud when other people find out how great Christopher is too. He bends down to pick Christopher up, “Let’s go,” he tells Christopher, sending Buck one last smile before he turns to carry Christopher back towards the car.

"Bye Christopher!" Buck calls from behind him, and Eddie can actually imagine him waving.

"Bye Buck!" Christopher calls back over Eddie's shoulder.

***

The day after he saw Eddie and met Christopher at Santa's Grotto, Buck is busy with the line of kids waiting to see Santa when there’s a commotion across the square.

“What’s going on?” Blair – his closest friend amongst his fellow elves – asks him, because Buck is the tallest elf to probably have ever existed.

Buck peers over the crowds, “I think someone’s fainted or tripped over or something,” he murmurs to her, so the kids can’t hear. It looks like there’s plenty of people around the person to help them, so he concentrates back on his job.

Fifteen minutes later he’s on his break, and he hears a laugh, and he turns, and he closes his eyes, and he says “Don’t. Don’t you say a fucking thing.”

“Honestly,” Hen cackles, “Who knew elves had such potty mouths?!”

All of them are there – Bobby, Hen, Chim, Lena and Eddie – they have all seen him. Oh, for god’s _sake_. Why do these things always happen to him?! He’s only just got over the Captain America costume ordeal. 

“Bobby,” Buck greets because, you know, the routine.

“Buck,” Bobby greets in return.

“Are they ok?” Buck asks, gesturing in the direction of where the person had collapsed, because he guesses that’s why they are all here. He tries to ignore that his costume is jangling as he moves. He knows the 118 aren’t ignoring it.

“They’re fine,” Bobby assures him, “Didn’t even have to take them to the hospital.”

“Good,” Buck says. He scowls at them all grinning at him. “Well, go about your day, folks…” he shoos them off, “Some of us are dealing with very important Official Santa Business.”

Thankfully, because the 118 are good people, they do show mercy on him and move back towards their vehicles. Eddie lingers behind, though.

“Should I feel bad about the fact that when I found out someone had collapsed at this address, I automatically worried it might be you?” Eddie asks.

Buck doesn’t feel offended. He feels kind of flattered. “Well, it’s a fair assumption to make based on past evidence,” Buck shrugs.

Eddie stares at him in the way he does whenever Buck refers too cheerfully to his past disasters.

“While I’m here,” Eddie says awkwardly, “I wanted to thank you again for yesterday. I didn’t intend to...well, overshare.” Eddie shifts, looking embarrassed in the same way he did the previous evening.

Buck gets the feeling Eddie doesn’t talk much about himself, and that revealing so much to Buck yesterday was a very rare occurrence. Buck doesn’t mind, of course. In fact, he considers it a compliment that Eddie feels he can trust Buck enough to open up and share his conflictions with him. And while _sure_ , Buck was a _bit_ disappointed to find out that the kind, hot firefighter that he’s been sort-of crushing on for a few months now is back together with his wife, Buck knows he’ll get over it. He got over Abby. He got over Ali. He can get over a silly crush on a guy who’s probably straight anyway and, you know, _married_.

“Don’t worry about it, really,” Buck tells him, “It was nice to see you yesterday, and to meet Christopher. And I hope Christopher gets his Christmas wish.” That also means, of course, that Buck’s also passing on his wishes that Eddie is able works things out with his wife.

Eddie sends him a smile – it’s not as bright a smile as usual, and Buck gathers Eddie's still a little unsure about what he’s going to do about his relationship with his wife – “Thanks Buck.”

Chim calls out “Diaz!” from across the square.

“Sorry Buck,” Eddie gestures to the 118’s vehicles, “Duty calls.”

“Oh totally! I get that,” Buck gestures back towards Santa’s grotto, “Same here.”

Eddie’s grin is _much_ bigger and more genuine this time. He starts to turn to head back to the fire truck, but he pauses to say “Hey, have a good Christmas, Buck.”

“Thanks,” Buck says, “I will.” Buck is going to be spending his first Christmas in years with Maddie, now that she’s finally left Doug and moved to LA. Maddie isn't really in the festive mood this year, which is understandable, so it's going to just be a super quiet one with just the two of them, but Buck's actually really looking forward to it. “I hope you have a great Christmas too, Eddie,” Buck tells him, “I’ll put in a good word with Santa for you.”

Eddie laughs, eyes bright, and oh god, Buck’s not helping himself get over his stupid high school crush on Eddie at _all_. The sight of Eddie’s ass as he jogs back to the fire truck does Buck no favours in that regard, either.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! :) Comments, kudos and bookmarks are much loved and appreciated.
> 
> Thanks to everyone who has read and responded to my other Buddie fics Those Two Firefighters (chapter 2 of that coming soon!), Mr July, Baby Be Brave, Available to be Unavailable and Falling but Already Fallen. You're the best.


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